Vice Admiral Kay Achim Schönbach contradicted the federal government by giving Crimea up for lost and requesting respect for Vladimir Putin
The head of the German Navy, Vice Admiral Kay Achim Schönbach, has resigned this Saturday in office for some untimely statements about the conflict in Ukraine that contradict the policy of the German government. Late at night, the Federal Ministry of Defense communicated to the heads of the different parliamentary groups in the Bundestag that the 56-year-old soldier had submitted his resignation to the minister, Christine Lambrecht, and that she had accepted his resignation and ordered his immediate transfer to reserve.
Schönbach had declared during a visit to India that the Crimean peninsula was territory that Ukraine should consider lost to Russia, a statement that contradicts the position held by the Berlin executive and the NATO countries, which consider that Moscow violated the international law by occupying that region by military means and demand its return to the Kiev authorities. The Vice Admiral also defended Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom he said only demands respect and that he surely deserves it, in addition to commenting that this wish would be easy to fulfill.
“I have just requested the Minister of Defense to immediately release me from my tasks and duties as Inspector of the Navy. My thoughtless statements in India on security and military policy are only taxing my position. In order to prevent further damage to the German Navy, the Federal Army and, above all, to the Federal Republic of Germany, I consider this step necessary. The federal minister has accepted my request. The Commander-in-Chief of the fleet and Vice Inspector of the Navy, Rear Admiral Kaack, will lead the German Navy until a successor is decided,” reads a note written by the military and released by the ministry.
The vice admiral’s controversial remarks took place during a seminar in India that was recorded on video and posted on social media. Among other things, Schönbach states that “the Crimean peninsula has been lost and will not return, this is a fact”, as well as that Ukraine cannot become a member of NATO because it does not meet its criteria.
Kay Achim Schönbach had been in office since March 2021 with the mission “in the Federal Ministry of Defense and the multilateral military unions is to represent the maritime perspective of the Federal Army,” according to Lambrecht’s office. The statements of the hitherto head of the German Navy caused the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry to summon the German ambassador in Kiev, Anka Feldhusen, to whom they expressed that they considered the words of the senior German military officer “unacceptable.” Previously, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Dmytro Kuleba, had pointed out that these statements contradicted Germany’s support for Ukraine and its diplomatic efforts in its conflict with Russia.
Schönbach had also described fears of an imminent Russian invasion of Ukraine as “nonsense.” What Vladimir Putin wants is “respect at the same level,” the vice admiral said. “It’s easy to give him that respect that he wants and also surely deserves,” Schönbach added in India, where he stressed that the great danger to the West is China. “Even we, India, Germany, need Russia, because we need Russia against China,” he said, to then comment that he is a “faithful Catholic and Russia is a Christian country and, even if Putin is an atheist, it doesn’t matter” .
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